On 11/10/2013 7:15 AM, Mr. Luddite wrote:

The most recent jobs report indicates that the economy added a higher
number of jobs than expected. That makes all the news.

What is not emphasized and doesn't make headlines is that more working
age people dropped out of the job market than were hired and are no
longer counted as "unemployed".

Just read an article where the author claims that if the trend continues
(which has been steady for the past 5 years) that in four short years
there will be more working age people *not* working and participating in
state and federal entitlement programs than are employed and paying taxes.

Scary thought.

Scary is right!
When I read the first two lines, I thought you were missing the point.
And then you said, "if the trend continues (which has been steady for
the past 5 years)"
There's a term that the financial people use, *(and I can't recall
what it is at the moment) which is the percentage of the workforce working.
Anyway the number has been low for years and is not moving up like it
should this far into what should be a robust recovery.
Government has put a drag on economic growth, and slowed job growth.

*Workforce utilization, output utilization, some term like that,
it's been running around 63% as I recall.

Mikek